Roam Mobility Promo: Add Data for $2 to Talk+Text Plans

Roam Mobility is headquartered in Vancouver that aims to make U.S. roaming (on the T-Mobile network) easier for Canadians. Their voice and data plans are an option for those without unlocked devices and want to setup their roaming in Canada before they embark to the U.S.

For the month of October, Roam Mobility is offering a discount on their plans. For subscribers to their Talk+Text plans, adding data will only cost $2, making the cheapest option for prepaid wireless in the United States. For example, those on the Talk+Text 30 day plan would get unlimited talk, text, 2GB of data for $2.07/day.

Another new device has been added to the Roam Mobility line up, a dual-SIM phone made by Social Mobile Cellular, the FB100. This quad band phone has a QWERTY keyboard, 1.3MP camera, and Bluetooth and headset with mic. It will be available for $49.95 including a Roam SIM card.

There are cheaper ways to get roaming in the U.S. if you have an unlocked iPhone. But for those that want to have everything setup before they go in Canada, Roam Mobility is an option.

Yup. I was thinking exactly the same thing. Would be a much appreciated article!

nosnoop

I am not sure if there is a cheaper way.
Remember that all Roam Mobility plans included unlimited calls back to Canada as well as US. This is something you don’t usually get even if you get a local SIM in US.

Roam Mobility uses T-Mobile network, so you would get 3G only if you have a AWS 3G compatible phone (i.e. those compatible with Wind and Mobilicity). With an unlocked iPhone, you would only get 2G speed. And no, T-Mobile does not have AWS LTE, at least not now. So the iPhone 5’s AWS LTE would not work.

You need to purchase a Roam Mobility SIM for $19 (free with some phones plans), and it remains active for 1 year. At the end of one year, you can add the cheapest 1 day plan to keep it active for another year.

Tito71

always looking for cheaper wauys, eagerly waiting for answers 🙂 at this this offer has unlimited calling back to Canada

JMCD23

Likely buying a SIM for an American provider such as AT&T. The problem with this is that the money/SIM expires quickly, so you cross the boarder without a working SIM. Roam Mobility allows you to be setup from the get go. I personally use a non-data SIM from a company called Ekit. The money lasts 18 months and the rates are quite good.

crosseyed_mofo

in other news, tmobile stores have started receiving nano sims

crosseyed_mofo

tmobile is rolling out an iphone compatible 1900 mhz band, hspa+

its live in nyc apparantly, will see how it is when i land in newark friday

Mark_Ont

Right now, there is no cheaper or better option than Roam Mobility. They offer unlimited calling to Canada and the SIM does not expire for a year. A local US SIM from AT&T or T-Mobile expires the credit in 30 days and the SIM goes dead in 90. Now Roam seems to offer a service designed for Canadians and is now even cheaper than the US carrier options. With the new 1900 3G band coming up on T-Mobile, I think Roam Mobility has nailed the problem and given us a better deal than American’s are getting. Of course I use the service and I’m extremely happy with it. I’m just not sure how they were able to charge less than the American carriers.

Mark_Ont

I’ve asked Roam about the Nano SIM and they said they are on their way. You could cut a Roam micro SIM into a Nano.

Mark_Ont

You’re not going to find one cheaper than these guys.

crosseyed_mofo

but tmobile directly you get much… much better plans

$2-$3 unlimited text talk and data per day

Mark_Ont

How is that possible? I’m a converted t-mobile customer. It thought it was cheaper but here is what I learned when I switched. First of all they charge 0.29/min for calls to Canada, with Roam its free. Plus t-mobile forces you top up for a min of $10 where Roam you can top up for only $3 per day. Roam doesn’t throttle data, t-mobile does. t-mobile sims expire if not used in 90 days, Roam does not. So can you tell me how t-mobile has much better plans?

crosseyed_mofo

its the unlimited data that does it for me, you are right about the calls to canada though… expiration is not a concern for me considering how often I frequent the states but I guess you have a point there as well…

I just recall when roam first came out the plans were not as good as they are now… either way is still a way better deal then buying roaming plans with our providers 😀

Mark_Ont

That’s what I thought about unlimited data as well, but even if you could use the 4G service on t-mobile, they throttle you after 200 MB each day. I think with this new pricing, even the data portion is cheaper than a local US sim using Roam.

Al

Roam may be cheap on the wallet at first sight but in reality they cost me more than At&t’s go phone service in the long run with poor service and even poorer customer service.

I switched from AT&T GoPhone to Roam. It has cost me more money. It
works fine if you pre load it in advance of your trip with no additional
top ups during your trip. We were in South Washington and stayed an extra day to meet
friends. So the next day when we went to use the text top up option as well as
dialing 611, we kept receiving the message “outgoing calls are
currently blocked on this phone, please dial 611 for more assistance”.
We missed connecting with our friend who were headed to California. To make up for that, Roam gave me a Plan 10 $10 discount.

On our next trip to the US, we decided to spend a night last minute and decided to use the $10 credit to activate our Roam Cell so I could make sure a few things could be taken care of back in Canada. 611 and text top up did not work again so I connected at a McDonalds wifi location and used my laptop to purchased the order. I received a confirmation from Roam that the cell would be active in 15 minutes. After an hour of driving on the I-5, no service. So this time I had brought my Rogers cell and incurred $30 in roaming charges to place the calls I needed to. After taking 30 minutes to find a payphone because dialing 611 did not work again, I was on the line with Roam for 30 minutes to get the cell to work. The call center is in Florida and the rep told me they only have 2 reps working that weekend for the entire US. After we got the calling to work, texts still were not working. The rep told me that even though they advertise dialing 611 for support and top up, it does not work in Washington because of something to do with T-Mobile systems. Wasted another 15 minutes to get text messaging working. The 2 reps had to keep leaving my call as there were more people calling in for support than reps available. I had asked for a manager to contact and never received a email. When I called in 2 weeks later because I had not received an email, the rep basically said they try and offer a service and sometimes there are issues but Roam is not responsible for any additional costs incurred because of their service issues. When I asked why it takes on average 15-30 minutes to get through to a rep, she said they only have a few reps. When I asked if only 2 people were handling calls again (this time on a weekday) she said she was not allowed to answer. When I called back, She picked up the phone again. (hmmm – gotta make you think)

On our last trip to California, the service worked fine in Palm Springs. When we got to LA, we received a message that out top up was successful. Later that evening when I went to use the phone to make reservations for my wife’s birthday the following day, the message on the line was that this account had been suspended and I could call 611 for a service that had been paid for 2 weeks earlier. When I dialed 611, their office was closed and would have to call back in the morning. This was an issue because I had told my wife’s mother that I will keep my wife up until midnight so she can call and wish her happy birthday. She tried calling but could not get through and could not leave a message. The next morning after waiting 30 minutes on hold for a rep, I tried online and got help right away. After 15 minutes she had the phone working. When I asked her why all the problems with Roam and explained 3 times used – 3 times it failed, rather than an explanation or even an apology, she disconnected the call. After responding to the Customer service survey, they credited me for the 1 day of service outage.

Roam is inconvenient and unreliable. At&t’s $2 a day for North American texting, US calling and 19cents plus tax for Canadian calling would have been cheaper and more convenient in the long run.